Workers unearthed a skeleton from under the floor of an “sinister house” and the first thing that crossed their minds was “Chupacabra”. It apparently has a cat-like head and a rat-like tail and is terrifying the neighborhood.

“In the city of Pucón, Chile, workers were stopped dead in their tracks as they accidentally dug up a bizarre skeleton. The remains are said to be out of this world. Described as having a cat-like head and the tail of a rat, the remains were accompanied by other smaller skulls of local rodents.”

Our eyes locked. Each one of us trying to stare down the other. A mortal man versus a cryptological enigma. My goal – satisfying scientific curiosity. His goal – to hide in the shadows until his blood rage send him into the night in search of more prey. In the end, he would win. But not without a sacrifice.

For the first time we present a Weird Things exclusive. Photo and video of the Chupacabra taken by me when I went on a walk in a South Florida park.

We’ve decided to not reveal the location of the park in order to protect this creature’s habitat. Should he prove a nuisance and begin to prey upon household pets or children, we reserve the right to take action. Until then, he’s free to prey upon whatever comes into his domain, including the elderly.

I came upon the creature in broad daylight. The hairless body, odd gait and features that harken back to a time when mammals and reptiles were much more closely related, immediately struck a cord. 30 yards in front of me, I knew what I was looking at: The Legendary Chupacabra. Sensing another hunter, it darted into the bushes. I gave chase and followed him into his lair.

Despite the tangled brush I managed to take out my iPhone and capture several photos and video you to see.

Some of you may look at these photos and claim it’s just a mangy raccoon. I suggest an alternate hypothesis: The Chupacabra is a shape shifter and he chose the form of a mangy raccoon. The burden of proof is on you.

This is the path where I first saw him as he tried to stealthily avoid my notice.

A chameleon like predator, he has the natural ability to blend into his background. Can you see him?

Here’s a close up shot of the beast we’ve nicknamed ‘Chupy’. Notice the cunning look to his eyes.

Andrew Mayne is publisher of WeirdThings.com. His latest book, The Grendel’s Shadow is available for the Kindle at Amazon.com.

We mentioned Benjamin Radford’s new book Tracking The Chupacabra both on the blog and in our YouTube series but now the man has put his money where his mouth is.

To briefly recap: Radford makes two major claims via his book research. First, the modern Chupacabra legend was born in 1995. Chiefly, the name Chupacabra and the description of it as a vampiric, reptilian creature. Second, it was likely inspired by 1995 action/thriller Species.

Although his second point might forever be up for debate, the first can be disproved pretty concretely if someone found the right evidence. So that’s why Radford has put up $250 of his own cash (plus a signed copy of the would-be invalidated book) if anyone can find him a published account of a creature named Chupacabra that bares a similar description from before 1990.

We aren’t quite sure he’s choosing 1990 as the line in the sand and not 1995. But, them’s the rules.

Did the Chupacabra mythos start as fan art for the 1995 Sci Fi thriller Species?

That is the assertion of Benjamin Radford who tracked the legend to it’s roots on the island protectorate of Puerto Rico. According to new research, all Chupacabra references can be traced back to a newspaper article in the second week of August in 1995. The alleged eye witness Madelyne Tolentino who provided the illustration depicted a lanky bobble headed creature with spikes jutting from the spine area.

Radford’s theory is that the creature might have been inspired by the 1995 erotic, science fiction thriller Species. In that film, a shape-shifting alien Natasha Henstridge attempts to mate with a human male. Her true form most notably bares resemblance to Tolentino’s drawing in the spikes and boney hands.

Which might be no coincidence, since according to Radford, Tolentino admits that she saw the film before penning her illustration and confesses that it might have inspired her final product. Species was released in theaters on July 7th, only a month and a half before the original newspaper report.

This is actually a pretty good investigative report about the history of the chupacabra including an interview with Ben Radford, managing editor of Skeptical Enquirer and one of the hosts of Monster Talk.

“In the last 10 years chupacabra just means anything weird,” Radford said. “It means some dead animal of some sort that we can’t identify.”

My favorite part is at the very end when the main news anchor ends the segment by saying, “Yes, Virginia, there is a Chupacabra.” I am not sure he was paying attention.

In Kentucky, being unidentifiable and having no fur in winter can be a deadly combination.

Mark Cothren shot and killed an animal on Dec. 18 because he said he feared what it was, since he did not recognize it. He said the animal walked from the woods onto his front yard around 3 p.m. Cothren lives on Mount Carmel Church Road in Lebanon Junction.

“I was like: ‘every animal has hair, especially this time of year!’ What puzzled me is how something like that could survive through a winter with no hair,” Cothren said.

Hunters in the remote woodlands of the Sichuan province in China caught a small hairless creatures that is said to resemble a bear with a kangaroo tail. The creature has been shipped to Beijing for scientists to examine and DNA test. The creature has been named the “Oriental Yeti” because the hunters believe the creature is a legendary animal that was once human.

“There are local legends of a bear that used to be a man and some people think that’s what we caught,” said hunter Lu Chin.

While local legends are well and good, everybody knows that if you find a hairless, mangy creature of any kind, the answer is chupacabra. This is a bold new direction for hairless animal discoveries that will resonate around the world.

Residents in southeastern Wisconsin have recently been reporting sightings of a nocturnal creature invading their back yards. This photo was snapped by a woman as the creature sat in her back yard on its hind legs eating crab apples. The photo was sent to the The Wildlife in Need Center where a spokeswomen said that while it “may point to the existence of the elusive and legendary El Chupacabra residing in southeastern Wisconsin” it most likely is “a gray or red fox with Sarcoptic Mange, caused by an infestation of mites.” Many people were quick to label this creature a Chupacabra, but it has also been noted that this is not the first time kangaroo-like creatures have been reported in Waukesha County.

Most Chupacabra sightings/corpses can be easily identified as mangey, feral dogs who unpredictably roam desolate areas attacking livestock. But why are these dogs being transformed into legendary monsters?

We might have an answer!

In a recent “Monster Talk” podcast posted on Skeptic magazine’s website, OConnor explained that the mite responsible for the extreme hair loss seen in “chupacabras syndrome” is Sarcoptes scabiei, which also causes the itchy rash known as scabies in people. Human scabies is an annoyance, but not usually a serious health or appearance problem, partly because our bodies are already virtually hairless and partly because the population of mites on a given person usually is relatively small — only 20 or 30 mites.

Does this mean we can now we can consider Chupacabras as a werewolf equivalent to dogs? Once they’re bitten is there any coming back?

You know, you see enough bizarre animals and after a while it probably just gets tiresome calling them all proof positive of urban legends. Just ask Adair, Oklahoma. They went and found themselves a mangey raccoon and try as some locals might to cite the frightened critter as an example of the legendary Dry Gulch Chupacapra, most folks just aren’t buying it.

Scheffel says they believe it’s a raccoon that has an advanced case of mange, but that’s not stopping people in the area from calling it something else.

He says it’s known as the Dry Gulch chupacabra, after the legendary animal that supposedly sucks the blood of goats.

The experts at Wild Heart Ranch say the animal will grow its hair back so it will again look like a normal raccoon.

OR the regeneration of hair is proof that they’ve found the legendary Dry Gulch Raccoon That Was Bit By A Werewolf Once.

Cryptomundo is rightly frustrated by new Chupacabra images floating around. The mangy creatures pictured all walk on four legs. Here is the one item long cheat sheet for any potential cryptid hunters: if the beast does not walk on two legs, it is not the same monster which famously made a name for itself stalking about the hills of Puerto Rico.

Just come up with a new name? Like Quad-racabra. In fact, don’t call it that until I can register the domain.